USD 475 Receives Notification on Additional Federal Heavy Impact Aid

Geary USD 475 has received notification from the U.S. Department of Education stating that the school district has qualified for federal heavy impact aid once again.

That means the district now expects to receive $85 million over the next four years instead of $66.5 million over the next three years.

That is good news for the proposed new Junction City High School project, which would be partially funded by heavy impact aid. That could leave a portion of the federal money for use on other capital improvement projects or to retire the bonds on the new school earlier.

The announcement was made by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Corbin Witt. He also stated that there have been changes in the legislation which in the past limited bonds from covering sports facilities unless they were being replaced to address safety concerns or ADA compliance issues.

The superintendent said the district sought an evaluation of current district sports complexes and found none of the existing facilities were ADA compliant. District officials decided to use the ADA compliance portion of the new legislation to provide better assurances to the community prior to the upcoming bond election.

The proposed construction of a sports complex as it relates to the JCHS Way Forward project is definitely included under the Kansas School Equity and Enhancement Act. That portion of the project is estimated at $5.6 million of the $105 million maximum amount that would be available for the project.

Voters go to the polls November 7 to cast ballots on a bond issue for the new school. If they say yes the State will pay 47% of the cost of the project, and federal heavy impact aid will provide the remainder of the funding. Witt made it clear during a press conference at the Devin Center there will be no increase in the local property tax levy.

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Great, now just lower your price to a reasonable amount and you can just buy a new high school outright.

Junkyard dog

I think we the citizen of this county needs to drain this swamp, the local government is trying to govern like they use to in Washington before Trump. They introduce a bill and then sneak in other little things in the middle, thinking no one will see it . In this case it’s a new high school, with a new sports complex sneaked in it.

No wonder they put the new sports complex under table earlier this year, some swap rats figured out away to sneak it into the purpose school vote, (Sham on them). Now all of a sudden all this money is just pouring out of the sky. How about giving some back to the local property owners in the form of a tax rebate.

Right now i don’t know about this high school, there are to many other issues with this community we can’t even get decent manufacturing company here to keep our future graduates to stay here, even and if they graduate from this $105M high tech school there’s know future here for them.

That’s why my vote is “NO”

taxed2death

Here we go again. FIX THE HIGH SCHOOL. Get a reputable contractor to repair the existing structure and bring it into the 21st century to do the work. Not HUTTON>

Beilschmidt

We don’t need new school. We need new teachers

Drew

Explain? The turnover rate at the high school this year was in the 60% range. How many more new teachers do you want? This comment is ignorant.

Ed Smith

Were exit interviews (anonymously) conducted? If there were,
was any effort made to determine if there were trends that motivated this exodus?
Perhaps there are problems present that building a new high school will not solve.
Transparency?

Drew

There are always anonymous exit interviews done. I’m sure that the district and building leaders look into trends, but there’s not a lot you can do to keep teachers who have spouses with military orders… or other family members relocating (or the 5-8 that retired after last year).

In regards to my response to the initial comment, they were calling for new teachers. I don’t feel it’s right to call for new teachers when there was almost a brand new staff. And not to mention, the 40% that remain there are working their behinds off to improve student’s lives and set them up for success.

Beilschmidt

Didn’t mean more teachers but new ones that care and don’t try to brain wash our kids